January birds

I love getting pictures of birds that visit our home!

Goldfinch

As Spring comes, the goldfinch will turn more and more yellow.

By summer, he is a bright yellow!

Goldfinch and house finch

House finch and Junco

 The Junco is a winter bird; a type of sparrow.  This is the slate-colored race.

Cardinal and sparrow (it is so cute!!)

Flicker 

                                                      Female downy woodpecker

Sweet little sparrow

The chickadee

It makes a tse tse tse sound.  Also a whistle - "so sweet" it calls

I've been trying to photograph an elusive wren, but it is so flighty!  One day I'll have my camera ready when he appears!  This morning I heard his loud, bubbly cry and got my camera ready, but I never did see it.

Marjolein Bastin paints the cutest wrens!

A cooper hawk in the willow - enemy of these little birds

They fly into bushes to escape.

As Christians, we also have an enemy.  1 Peter 5:8  "Be sober-minded; be watchful.  Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."

I think about how a hawk soars to and fro, or sits in a branch with his keen eye, just watching.  Just waiting to see a mouse or little bird he can go after.  Likewise, Satan. 

 "Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me." 

                                                                               Psalm 50 15

"For in the day of trouble He will hide me in His shelter; He will conceal me under the cover of His tent; He will set me high upon a rock."        Psalm 27:5

He is our Rescuer!  

                Our Protector. 

                         Our Shield. 

                                  Our Defender! 

                                            Our Deliverer.  

Farewells

Saturday morning, Jason and Mindy said their good-byes as they needed to get back to their home.  We had a relaxing day.

It was such a COLD week here in Kansas.

This winter has seemed colder than normal.

 In the evening, we fixed sukiyaki.

The kids like to pick out their own chopstick rests - hashioki.

I have various styles to choose from.  Here are a few of them.

Aren't they fun?

We don't serve sukiyaki in a formal, Japanese way, with multiple dishes.  The kids just prefer to put the sukiyaki on top of their rice so we just put it all in one bowl.  It probably would not be acceptable in Japan, but here in our home, it's just fine.  I am not fussy about it.  

 And we don't do the raw egg.  I actually LOVE the raw egg with it, but eggs in the States are not too safe.  I got salmonella poisoning once and so I don't do it anymore!

                                          This girl!  Goodness!

                                          We must learn manners!

After the children went to bed, we had a wonderful time just talking and talking, and laughing together.  A precious time!

On Sunday morning, we drove to Hillsboro, where Adam used to be the pastor.  

Adam was asked to speak a few words.

The pastor was visiting a new church plant, so our worship pastor from our church in Newton had come to lead worship and preach.  

After church, Josh's were going to leave to go back to Arkansas, so we went to Pizza Hut for lunch before they were going to leave.

Emeri realized that she had left her glasses back at our home, so instead of heading back to Arkansas via 77, they came back to Newton first.  One last cousin time!!

Adam took Hannah and Claire to the "puppy store".

They used to go quite often when they lived here.

The girls have begged for a puppy, but Adam and Jill are not pet people.

Macho Men

Braum's for supper!  No Braum's in Wisconsin.  But then, we don't have a Culver's here, so when we go there, we have to go to Culver's!

The sunset was spectacular!

The next morning, Jill's family left for their home.  What a wonderful time we had had with our family!  And now, it is just we 2 "old" people alone again.  

 

Come visit us again, kids!

Fun with games

We really enjoy playing games as a family.  Claire learned how to play Battleship.  We have the old-fashioned set from when our kids were children.  

Not this newfangled kind that is electronic.

Jill was instructing her how it works.

Her opponent was Papa.

"He hit my ship."  Look at those pouty lips!

But in the end, she beat her Papa; sunk all his ships first!

Way to go, Claire!

We learned a new card game.

Then we played our own version of  Telestrations.

We took paper and cut it down to size.  You need as much paper as there are players.  We stapled them together into a booklet so the kids wouldn't get them mixed up.  When we play with just adults, we just make a stack.  

Then you write down a phrase, anything you can think of.  

"Unloading the groceries from the car."

"Riding down a slippery slide at the park and landing in a mud puddle."

"Watching the movie Mary Poppins."

The more complicated, the better.  You wouldn't want to just write down "train."  

You hand the sheet with the phrase to the next player.  Then it is timed.  

They have 1 minute to draw that phrase and then pass it on.

The next player looks at the drawing and tries to figure out what it is.

It goes back and forth - phrase to drawing, drawing to phrase,

until it gets all the way back too the original person.

We just laugh and laugh as each person shows how their phrase morphed 

and what the last one guessed.

The game of LIFE!  This is an old game.  

The salary of the doctor and lawyer is $25,000.

One of my favorite games is Imaginiff.

You write down the names of everyone playing.

If there are extra spaces, you can write down anyone's name.

Your preacher, the president, Bugs Bunny, whatever.

Then you go around the room and each player on his turn rolls the dice to see who in the space the question will be talking about.  He reads the card.  Here is one play that happened.

Someone rolled Adam, and the question asked was:
"Imaginiff Adam were honked at by an impatient driver.  Would he...."
1.  Get out of the car and threaten the driver
2.  Ignore it and turn up the radio
3.  Honk 'em right back
4.  Wink and lick the window
5.  Give an apologetic wave
6.  Record the license plate and call the police

Can you guess?  The object is to try to guess what everyone else will say and those who have the most number right, move forward a space.

The one Adam said was definitely what he would do was #4!!   Now, if the majority had picked 6, that was the correct answer and those people moved up 1.  But most people guessed him correctly.  My son-in-law, a preacher, would do that???!!!    I would so do #5.

You might land on a "challenge" and you pick someone that you think will agree with you in an answer.  If you both agree and put down the right number, you move forward 4.  If not, you go backwards 4.  Here Sophie and Hannah answered the same way.  It was hilarious and they were so excited!


What fun games does your family like to play?